Thursday, October 29, 2015

Gaylord Indian restaurant has been around for quite some time but I never had a chance to visit until now.

The sauces for the big group

The veggies made me drool

The service was slow. But then again there was a banquet and a bigger group. But the parathas on the table were a nice touch and I couldn't help myself to it. We were all hungry.

The larger group were all Indians which was lovely to see. This reassured me that the food was traditionally Indian.

To start off with I enjoyed their mango lassi. Here a mango lassi is an Indian drink full of rosewater, mango and milk. This took a while to come. But when it did it was cool and refreshing.

The entrees of fried cheese for vegetarians were really lovely. It was creamy and lightly fried.

The onions in the chicken and beef dish were caramelised well and had that sweetness about it.

For mains there was the curry. I had the fish curry and rice and then I had to scoot for the train. The fish curry was lovely and creamy and not too spicy. I'm not too sure about the meat ones since I had to leave and I'm not a huge fan of meat.

Many thanks to Study Melbourne for the invite and hope to see you again soon

This festival happens every spring and it brings a huge crowd of kids, adults and pets. The festival is run by the City of Melbourne and it usually includes some of the government stalls. Meld has mentioned it a few times.

Olive oil tasting

Ice cream

The dessert bar

At the wine area

Salt for $5

Free fruit for all

300 Blankets is a charity to help the homeless

Plants for sale

Herbs for a gold coin

This was a fun Sunday for all.

It was easily accessible by tram and its free for all. The food however was not and it was the usual standard truck fare. The dogs are cute and friendly to pat and the Lort Smiths Animal Hospital was wanting donations.

Mini cupcakes

It was a sunny day and it was not too cold and not too warm. The pollen count was quite low making this a good day out.

There were heaps of free fun for all from Bernards magic shop to the dog show and live bands. The adults had their own beer garden where they enjoyed SOL Lychee beer.

There was a Cultural stage where the kids got to have some fun on the stage dancing.

I enjoyed the chips by the Limonata stall which were selling their homemade lemonade for $10. I didn't see what all the fuss was about this drink seeing as it was so expensive. By three pm this place was busy and by 4pm people wanted to go back home on the tram.

There was a few food samples and MIHub was there promoting and selling their wares. One day I will have to check out their café in Werribee.

I am glad that I did check out this successful and interesting event. I can't wait for next years and it would be great if I could volunteer or work for that festival.

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Grain Waves is a chip company that launched a few years ago. Here they gave us some new flavours to try. One of them is Salt and pepper chips.

The people were at Melbourne Central this week handing out samples. We received one and tried it on the way to MSAC. It was small and there wasn't a lot of pepper in this. Moreover as most of the chips do, they don't contain a lot of protein. They only contained about 1.3 g and lots of salt and sodium.

Do get your hands on one of these but just don't eat them too often. Available now at all major supermarkets

Woolworths has an e-gift card which means no paper and no postage costs to send the card. This was a relatively easy process but the only thing was waiting for e-gift card. We had to wait twelve hours for this.

Signing up for one is really easy on their site. With the one from Rewards Central it came within seconds. Where as the one I bought came 20 hours later.

Getting the prices online was easy. All I needed to was to search for the item and then buy it. When in-store all I needed to do was to provide the voucher number at their self serve. The first time it was really tricky and I made a mistake or two along the way.

I got tea, peanut butter and a naughty thing known as ice cream. I haven't had it for a while and it was a really hot day. So I bought this new flavour from Ben and Jerry's for $3.90 called "Cotton Candy". Cotton candy was more like vanilla flavored.

I bought Tasmanian brie too with this account. The brie was $5

And then I bought Macro's corn chips. I really do enjoy them for their health benefits.

RNIS bought a Groupon for this for one wrap and one juice. As part of the Groupon they joined the sumo salad club which entitled them to a free salad.

Sumo Salad is a salad chain which is all over Australia and they have stores overseas in Singapore, United Arab Emirates, US, Brazil and NZ. And they are on the lookout for more stores. The first store was in Sydney and then Melbourne. People are crazy about the health foods and salads that they offer.

They offer a make it yourself salad option, but it is not a part of the Groupon.

Some of the salads on offer

The juice was not too sweet and there were four flavours to choose from. I chose glow and it was freshly made with all fresh fruit.

The wrap itself wasn't too bad and it was peri peri which was spicy. The sauce drowned out the vegetables. It was soft but not messy which is great.

Extravaganza Geelong is a foodie event which is on every year. This event was at Deakin Uni and the entry fee was $25 and $5 extra each for the masterclasses. For a fine sunny Saturday not many people turned up in the morning but many more came for the afternoon and the chocolate session.

For $25 you got unlimited wine and food tastings and the wine glass, a goody bag with the paper in it and an apple. And no it does not include the V-line to and from Melbourne. For that I paid an extra $9. It is $18 without the Zone 1 and 2 pass.

Here we had fun tasting all the wines and all the food. And we also got to talk to some of the volunteers about their job and how much fun they had. Now I wonder where all the money goes to. Maybe some of it goes to the uni to pay the rent.

Olive oils

At the Olive oil masterclass

My first wine of the day

Cheese tastings

Bread from Alfie's Bakehouse

Tomato relish

The original Hammer and Tongs sauce

My wine glass

Free tastings of wine

Free cordial for all

Relishes

Olive oils for testing

The timetable for the stage

Mushrooms

The cooking stage

Jams

Olive oils and relishes. I bought a relish for $5

Wines

Herbs

The Little Creatures truck

At the Little creatures truck. I loved the sign

Making the macarons

Snowpeas and learning how to grow them

The bistro menu

Cured smoked salmon

Pesto dip

But still we enjoyed tasting the olive oil in masterclass and actually sipping that stuff. Then at the chocolate masterclass we enjoyed tasting the chocolates and watching the lady make these handmade sweets.

Trying the chocolates

There are also some free cooking demonstrations for all and also tastings at these. We enjoyed Matt Wilkinson's mussel toast. Who knew there could be such thing?

I got a lot for my money's worth and next year the Extravaganza team should host some blogger giveaways to those that can't afford it including return train trips to Geelong from Melbourne.

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This blog is for new international students coming into Melbourne. It features all the info about food, welfare and other issues that you may face as a student. This blog will give you some tips on surviving in Melbourne. If you have any questions and a Facebook account feel free to write me messages. Or otherwise you can ask it here. Thanks for visiting.

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